Francisco-fact: In the past, St. Francis has scheduled clean-up days. Are there plans for any clean-up days in over the summer?

When this blogger arrived, clean-up days were still part of the culture. There were two that first year of the new Rectorship. Much of those clean-ups were focused on landscaping issues. Aside from members trying not to injure each other with chain saws, axes, and other power equipment (this is referencing Rob Mercker), there has been some backing off of these projects.

Therefore, in the next two weeks an announcement will be made, and recruitment begun to do a summer clean-up day. The focus of this clean-up is that our storage space is full.

There are three components to this reality: 1) Over time, items have been left by members and visitors in closets; 2) Events and project decorations and signage have left us with storing church related items, many of which are outdated; 3) Various groups, internal and external to the church have used mechanical rooms as storage space, often in violation of fire codes and also restricting access to equipment.

One of the things the reader can do to help is to start looking for and claiming the items in the closets outside the Narthex, the closet in the hallway next to Millen Hall, and to look at the storage areas in Harris Hall. If something of yours is there, please take it home. Otherwise, in early July, these items will either be donated, as possible, or thrown away. The other way to help is to sign-up on those days when the clean-up will happen, because many hands make light work and we may discover that give/throw away items may have a purpose not known to the office staff or the current Vestry.

Just to make the congregation aware, we have no storage space. What is available and designated has been filled up. The problem is reasonably acute. Without storage space, we cannot receive new items. That means we have to depend on parishioners not to gift the church with more stuff, the leadership is also coordinating with outside groups and some parishioners to take away items that were never approved for storage.

In the future, the church will be following a new policy with regard to both outside and internal users of church space. That policy includes formal agreements governing the time, location, and conditions for using space at St. Francis. This formalization of St Francis space usage should assist the church staff and leadership in planning, coordinating, and managing storage and space usage.